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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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(The sequel to
HP & the Mirror's Gift)
Chapter IV
Tian-Long Academy of the Magical Arts
Above the clouds
lies a hidden land
With mountains and valleys fair.
The cities there are old and grand,
And dragons fly through the air.
Our school, with five pagodas tall,
Lies on the highest mountain of all.
The Portkey
was a slim, upright stone pillar which had been placed just outside
the Entrance Hall. Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing near
it, together with
their fellow Gryffindors who had come to see them off. Jeanne
was standing nearby
with Professor Lupin. She was wearing green robes, which had an
oriental look to
them, perhaps because of the narrow mandarin-style collar, and
long, full sleeves.
Harry had not been able to recognise her at first; she looked
very Chinese in them.
Presently Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle came down the Entrance Hall
steps, followed
by the Slytherins in their class. Malfoy smiled slyly when he
saw them.
"Stroke of luck for you, eh, Weasley," he drawled.
"Getting a holiday abroad for free.
Your father'd probably have to work an extra year or two to pay
for a trip like this."
Ron started forward, but Harry and Hermione each grabbed one
of his arms and held
him back, because Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape
were coming
down the Entrance Hall steps.
"Eat dung, Malfoy," hissed Ron, in an undertone,
shaking Harry and Hermione's hands
off. Jeanne had come over, as well. As they gathered around, hands
on the Portkey,
Harry noticed that she was still looking at Lupin.
Dumbledore looked at them and said cheerfully, "I need
not remind you to uphold the
name of Hogwarts while you are there. And, don't forget to enjoy
yourselves."
It was time. Parvati, Lavendar and the others were smiling
and waving, while Neville,
looking as if he wished he was going, called out, "Don't
forget to write!" His hand on
the Portkey, Harry felt that familiar jerking feeling somewhere
behind his navel, and
then they were all speeding forward in a howl of wind and swirling
colour.
He felt his feet slam into the ground. They had arrived. Letting
go of the stone pillar,
he and the others looked around with interest.
Evening was coming on, and they were standing on the slope
of a high mountain. To
their right, far down, they could see a city, rooftops shining
golden in the setting sun.
After the city, the land came to an end, and beyond that was a
sea of swirling clouds
in all sorts of fantastic shapes, stretching away in all directions,
seemingly to the ends
of the earth.
Hermione was the first to speak.
"We - we seem to be above the clouds!" she said, looking amazed.
"And you are," said an amused voice.
They turned around. A Chinese witch and wizard were standing
nearby, watching them.
The witch was dressed in yellow silk robes, with a pattern of
phoenix in flight embroidered
all over. Looking at her face, she seemed to Harry to be old,
and yet young, at the same
time. The wizard was old, with a sweeping white beard; his robes
were a severe black,
and unadorned. A long, slender sword was fastened to his belt.
Jeanne turned to the others.
"This is Lady Hsu Wen-Li, the Headmistress of Tian-Long,"
she said, "and Master Kung
Xian-Wen, her deputy, and Master of Internal Magic."
The witch and wizard came forward, smiling. Jeanne proceeded
to introduce each of the
students.
"I welcome all of you to China," said Lady Wen-Li,
kindly. "I hope that your experience
at Tian-Long will be an interesting one, and that you will have
an enjoyable time while
you are here." She smiled. "Please follow me. It is
a short walk to the school, which is
at the summit of the mountain."
She, Jeanne and Master Kung began leading the way. Harry and
the others let the
Slytherins go first, and then followed, looking around.
Although they seemed quite high up, it was not cold, and a
gentle breeze was blowing.
Harry had that still and peaceful feeling that was associated
with high places, as if one
were removed from the ordinary world. As they climbed higher,
the ground levelled out,
and they saw the school in the distance for the first time.
It looked like a Chinese Palace. The buildings were white,
with deep, overhanging
curved roofs, concave in shape, the ridges of which carried figurines
of various magical
creatures, mostly dragons. The roof of the main palace, which
was golden in colour,
seemed on fire in the light of the setting sun. Five pagodas rose
high up into the air.
Their roofs were of glazed tiles, each of a different colour :
green, red, dull yellow,
black and white.
They had reached the school gates, which were circular in shape,
like a full moon.
What caught Harry's attention, though, was not the gate, but what
was guarding it.
It was a large dragon, sitting to one side, eyes staring balefully
at them. It was brown
in colour, with a fringe of fine spikes around its face. The scales
on its long, snakelike
body glittered in the sunlight.
Lady Wen-Li and Master Kung merely nodded at the dragon, but
Jeanne looked at
it and smiled. The dragon gave her a regal nod, then turned its
head to regard the
nervous students who were following. Malfoy had put Crabbe and
Goyle between
him and the dragon. Ron's hand seemed to be hovering near his
belt, as if he wanted
to take his wand out.
The doors opened, and they entered the Moon-Gate, and made
their way through
the grounds. They reached a stream, and crossed the stone bridge
spanning it. Willows
lined the stream, and small pavilions were scattered here and
there.
A handful of students were gathered outside the school entrance.
Lady Wen-Li, on
seeing them, turned to the Hogwarts students and smiled.
"Your classmates are here to greet you," she said.
"They will show you to your
dormitory, and to the Hall, where we will be having dinner."
Jeanne said, "I'll leave you people here, as well, I need
to discuss something with
Master Kung." She smiled, and went off, waving at the Chinese
students, who
waved back at her.
The Chinese students had come up to them. The two groups regarded
each other
bashfully for a moment, and then a wiry boy in black robes with
a bushy shock of
hair came forward.
"I am Wong Chee-Chong," he announced in careful English.
"I am pleased to meet
all of you."
He shook hands all round, and then the others came forward.
"I am Cheung Wing-Fatt," said a chubby, round-faced
boy in white robes, with a
slim sword in a white scabbard at his waist. He had a sing-song
way of speaking,
and his eyes were very small, and twinkled. "You can just
call me Fatty," he added.
He gave a jolly smile, and his eyes disappeared into two little
slits.
The next student was a stunningly pretty girl in crimson robes.
She had long hair,
which had been curled, and which had a brown tint to it. Her eyelashes
were very
long, and when she smiled, two charming dimples appeared. She
did not appear to
be shy at all.
"I am Pik Hsiao-Yan," she announced, shaking their
hands. "You can call me Pixie."
She stopped when she came to Ron, and looked appreciatively at
him.
"I always find men with red hair very interesting,"
she said, lowering her eyelashes
and peeking at Ron through them. She then giggled.
Ron went as red as his hair, and Hermione looked rather outraged.
Malfoy, Crabbe
and Goyle sniggered.
Chee Chong said something in Chinese to Pixie, and pushed her
aside. He turned to
the others.
"Don't worry about her," he said to them. "She's
the schoo flirt. Half the boys in the
schoo are in love with her." Chee Chong had a curious way
of dropping the 'l' from
the end of some of his words.
Pixie didn't seem to mind this, and giggled again.
The next girl came forward. She was tall and haughty, and dressed
in pale yellow silk
robes. A phoenix sat on her shoulder, its leg attached to her
belt with a golden cord.
It did not look particularly happy.
"I am Feng Yu-Lin," she said coolly, shaking their
hands. She stopped when she came
to Harry, and looked at his scar. "I am pleased to meet you,
Harry Potter," she remarked.
"I have heard a lot about you."
"Um," said Harry, not knowing quite what to say.
He didn't think he particularly liked
Yu-Lin.
Yu-Lin shook hands with him, as if conferring an honour, and then turned to Malfoy.
"You are Draco Malfoy," she said, shaking his hand.
"My father knows your father.
He informed me you were coming."
Malfoy gave the others a sly smile. "Yes, I know," he drawled.
Hermione turned to Fatty.
"Is everyone here?" she asked. "I thought there
were supposed to be twelve of us
altogether."
"Yes, yes," said Fatty. "The other two are late. Oh, they're here"
A boy and girl, both in green robes, were hurrying up to them.
Harry had an odd
feeling when he saw the girl, as if he ought to know her. Then,
he realised why; she
reminded him of Cho Chang. She was taller and not as pretty as
Cho, with short,
wavy hair and spectacles, but in build and manner they were similar.
"Sorry we're late," she said, sounding out of breath. "We had Jousting practice."
She pushed her spectacles up, as they were slipping off her
nose. Harry noticed that
everything about her seemed to be green; besides her robes, her
bag was also green,
and she wore a green jade dragon pendant at her throat. A little
bright green snake,
with eyes like black dewdrops, peeked out of one her pockets.
"I am Lin Li-Shan," she said. "But everyone
just calls me Shan. And this is my cousin,
Robert Mo."
Robert was tiny. He was more than a head shorter than Shan,
and his robes were as
shabby and patched as Professor Lupin's had once been. The most
distinctive thing
about him, though, was that his spectacles seemed to reflect the
surroundings, so that
one could not quite see his eyes, or tell what his expression
was.
Shan and Robert shook hands with the others, and then they
all stood around, looking
at each other.
"We will show you to your dormitory," said Chee Chong
suddenly, gesturing with one
long arm toward one of the pagodas nearby, and whacking Fatty
in the face by accident.
"Ouch!" said Fatty, rubbing his eyes. Yu-Lin gave a little titter.
"Sorry, Fatt," said Chee Chong apologetically. Yu-Lin turned to Malfoy.
"You and your friends don't have to stay in the Green
Dragon dormitory," she said coolly.
"My father has written to ask Lady Wen-Li for permission
for you to have better quarters
in Yellow Dragon." She looked at Harry. "You may join
us, if you like."
"I'll stay with the rest, thanks," said Harry shortly.
He was beginning to like Yu-Lin less
and less.
Yu-Lin raised her eyebrows haughtily, then turned and languidly
led Malfoy, Crabbe
and Goyle toward another pagoda.
"Good riddance to her," remarked Pixie, looking after
them. "Come on," she said
breezily, catching Ron by the arm. "We're all too shy here.
Let me show you the dormitory!"
She led the way to the green-roofed pagoda, propelling Ron
by the elbow. The others
followed, Hermione looking very disapproving.
"You tell your flend to watch out," said Chee Chong.
He seemed to be losing his English,
and was beginning to mix his 'l's and 'r's up. "Xiao-Yan
has bloken many boys' hearts."
"Serves him right if she does," snapped Hermione.
She was about to continue, when three
postal dragons suddenly flew over to them, flying low over their
heads, and startling them.
The dragons landed on Fatty, one on each shoulder and the third
on his head. "Excuse
me," he said to the others. He took their letters, read them,
and then took a lacquer box
out from inside his robes, still walking forward all the while.
Harry was surprised.
"Do all three dragons belong to him?" he asked Shan,
who was next to him, Robert at her
side like a little shadow.
Shan grinned, and nodded.
"Fatty is from Hong Kong," she said. "His father
is a rich businessman. He's always cutting
some deal of his own, watch him."
Fatty had taken a crystal globe out of the lacquer box, and
taking his sword from his
waist, transformed it swiftly into a wand. He tapped the globe
with the wand; another
wizard's face appeared in the globe, and the two started having
an animated conversation.
"How did he do that to the sword?" said Harry in
surprise, looking at the wand, which
Fatty had now stuck into his belt.
"All our wands transform naturally into swords, and staffs,"
said Shan. She took her
wand from her belt, and swiftly transformed it into a large sword,
then into a long
wooden staff. "Duelling with the sword and staff is an old
tradition here. But most
of the time, it's more convenient to keep them as wands."
She twirled the staff several
times, then transformed it back into a wand, and stuck it back
into her belt.
Chee Chong had transformed his wand into a sword as well, and
handed it to Harry for
inspection. The scabbard was old and worn, but the blade inside
gleamed as if new from
the forge. Harry saw that it was made of peritin, the same material
from which Starlight
jewellery was usually made.
"Our swords cannot harm physically," said Shan, seeing
their interest in the sword. To
Harry and Hermione's horror, she took Chee Chong's sword and sliced
it completely
through her arm, then held her arm up to show them that it was
unharmed. "They're
used mostly to deflect curses, or disrupt arcane spells."
She handed Chee Chong's sword back to him. Fatty had finished
with the wizard,
and tapped the globe with his wand again. Another wizard appeared,
and Fatty
began to talk excitedly to him.
"What is he saying?" asked Hermione, listening with interest.
"We don't know," said Chee Chong. "He is speaking
Cantonese. That is the dialect
they use in Hong Kong. Most of us only speak Mandarin."
"He shouldn't be doing that," remarked Shan. "We've
been given strict orders to
speak only English while we're with you. But nothing stops Fatty
from doing business,
I guess."
Hermione looked curiously at Shan and Chee Chong's robes. The
Chinese students'
robes were like Jeanne's, with narrow collars and long, full sleeves.
"Why are all your robes of different colours?" she asked. "Isn't there a standard uniform?"
"We wear the colours of our Houses," explained Shan.
"I'm in Green Dragon, with Robert.
Chee Chong is in Black Tortoise, Fatty is in White Tiger, and
Pixie is in Crimson Phoenix.
Yu-Lin is in Yellow Dragon."
"That must be the equivalent of Slytherin, here," muttered Harry to Hermione.
Shan looked interested.
"Is that the House Draco Malfoy is in?" she asked.
"Yellow Dragon is not all bad, but
most of the nobility are in it, and most of the rich people too."
Robert was still by her
side, keeping silent and looking straight ahead. Harry found him
slightly unnerving.
Fatty had finished with the second wizard and was now talking to a third.
"Brack Tortoise is the House with the not-so-smart people,"
said Chee Chong
gloomily. "That is why I am there."
Shan patted him on the shoulder.
"That's not true, Chong," she said.
"How do you get sorted into your Houses?" asked Harry curiously.
Shan pushed her spectacles up her nose again, and looked at him.
"We have five magical House animals," she said. "They
do the choosing. All the
first-years line up in a row, and the animals go up to the ones
who should be in
their House. The Tortoise always takes the longest, so they usually
let him start first."
"How interesting," said Hermione, looking enthusiastic.
"What a pity we won't get to
see that."
"You can see each House animal at the entrance to the
House Pagodas," said Shan.
"There's mine, now."
She pointed at a green dragon which was perched over the large
entrance of the
green-roofed pagoda. Ron hesitated, as if loath to enter underneath
the dragon,
but Pixie was already dragging him in.
"Honestly," Hermione hissed in Harry's ear, "The way Ron is behaving!"
Fatty had finished with the third wizard. He dropped the globe
back into the lacquer
box, and took a large seal out instead. Taking his three letters,
he stamped each of
them with the seal, and then tied one to each dragon, which then
flew off. He then
tucked both seal and lacquer box away in his robes, and came to
join them as they
entered the Pagoda, humming and looking pleased with himself.
There were two large spiral staircases in the foyer inside.
The stairs in one seemed
to be moving upward all the time, while those in the other were
moving downward,
vanishing into the floor as they touched it.
"We're on the top floor," said Shan, stepping onto
the upward-moving stairs behind
Robert, who was going up first. "Fatty and Chee Chong will
be sleeping in your
dorm for these two months, instead of with their own Houses."
When they reached the top, they found Pixie and Ron admiring the view.
"That's the Celestial City," said Pixie, as they
came up to join them. She pointed at
the city below. The light was fading now, and the city was full
of twinkling lights.
"Each student gets a night out, once a month, if his net
number of demerits is zero,"
Pixie added, dimpling at them. "We can show you around the
city, then." Her eyes
fell on Ron as she said this. Hermione frowned.
Robert, Chee Chong and Fatty had gone inside the boys' dormitory.
Harry, noticing
this, turned to Shan. The little green snake in her pocket was
peeking out at him.
"This is LeafSong, my pet snake," she said, smiling,
when she saw him looking at it.
"Don't worry, she's not poisonous."
LeafSong looked at him with bright eyes, before disappearing
back inside the
pocket. Harry looked at Shan.
"Is Robert all right?" he whispered, so that the
others wouldn't hear. "I mean, he
doesn't have anything against us, does he?"
Shan laughed.
"No, no, it's just Robert," she said. "He's
just very quiet. He never says a word
unless he has to."
Pixie heard her, and came over.
"Your cousin frightens me, Shan," she said, dimpling.
"Why don't you ask him
to change his glasses? Then we can tell what he's thinking."
"He's fine as he is, Xiao-Yan," said Shan, bristling and glaring at her.
Pixie giggled.
"Shan is very protective of Robert," she said to
Harry. "But you can't always let
him stick to you," she added, to Shan, "otherwise, how
are you going to find a
boyfriend?"
Shan, obviously used to Pixie's nonsense, didn't bother to
reply to this. Harry
privately thought he preferred Robert to Pixie, who was beginning
to irritate him.
Hermione looked disapprovingly at Pixie, then cleared her throat
and said,
"Let's have a look at the dorms."
Harry went into the boys' dormitory together with Ron. His
trunk had arrived
earlier, and Hedwig was there, in her cage. Pigwidgeon was twittering
away
on top of Ron's trunk.
He had a Chinese-style, canopied bed, with six narrow posts
and inlaid with
marble. The bed was made of rosewood, intricately carved, and
had cushions
upholstered in Chinese silk. Chinese lanterns lit the room. Large
windows ran
along the entire room, giving a good view of the surrounding mountains
and the
sea of fantastically-shaped, swirling clouds.
Fatty was fixing a string of coins to the foot of his bed.
"For good feng-shui," he told Harry.
Harry was going to ask what feng-shui was, when Pixie
breezed into the room.
"Dinnertime!" she announced. "We have to go to
the Hall!"
"Xiao-Yan, you cannot come in here!" exclaimed Chee
Chong, looking scandalized.
He started pushing her out of the room, almost knocking Pigwidgeon's
cage over
in the process. Pixie giggled.
"Chee Chong is always so proper," she called, as she disappeared out the door.
They joined the girls, who were already waiting outside, and
started down the
downward-moving spiral staircase. Corridors branched off the stairs
at each
floor, and Shan, who was near the back, suddenly called out, "Next
floor!
We're getting off here!"
Fatty and Chee Chong, who were right in front, had missed the
floor.
Fortunately, the stairs were moving fairly slowly, so they managed
to run
back up again.
"Fatt and I have not been in Gleen Dragon Pagoda before,"
panted Chee
Chong, almost tripping as he scrambled off the stairs. Shan and
Robert
were now in front, leading the way.
"Erare we using chopsticks during dinner?"
asked Ron, looking rather
apprehensive.
Pixie giggled.
"Don't you know how to use chopsticks?" she asked.
"Don't worry," she
dimpled at him, "I'll help you!"
She said this so suggestively that Harry had a sudden image
of Pixie feeding
Ron with a pair of chopsticks. Ron had obviously thought of the
same thing,
because he went red again.
They went through richly furnished corridors; the floors were
carpeted in deep
red, and the walls were lined with large paintings on scrolls,
and silk tapestries.
Harry and Hermione looked curiously at them. One painting was
of a thickly
forested mountain. The tiny figures of three people and a mule
were at the foot
of the mountain, slowly moving along a footpath.
Another painting, done on silk, showed three Chinese maidens
washing clothes
in a river. They stopped when they saw Harry and Hermione, and
started giggling
and talking excitedly, pointing at them.
"Guess they haven't seen any non-Chinese people before," murmured Hermione.
"There's the Hall," said Pixie, in front with Ron,
pointing at a brightly-lit entrance
in the distance, at the end of the corridor. "The Hall of
a Thousand Dragons."
Other corridors branched out to the left and right of them.
Chee Chong, looking
down one, suddenly called, "Watch out!"
Before they could react, a blast of air swept out into the
corridor, slamming into
them. Ron and Pixie overbalanced, and fell to the floor. Harry
could feel himself
being blown away. He grabbed at a nearby table, and it fell over.
There was a
crashing sound in his ears, and he found himself lying on the
ground, feeling slightly
stunned, and too dazed to get up.
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